


Númenorean Letters

by Calima



Category: The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Epistolary
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-17
Updated: 2018-02-18
Packaged: 2019-03-20 08:44:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 854
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13714134
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Calima/pseuds/Calima
Summary: "Of  the  School  the  most  eminent   member  after   the  founder was,  or  still  is,  Pengolodh, an Elf  of  mixed  Sindarin and Noldorin  ancestry,  born  in  Nevrast,  who  lived   in  Gondolin from  its foundation.  ... he  is  said  to  have  remained  in Middle-earth until far  on into  the Second  Age for  the furtherance of his enquiries, and  for a  while to  have dwelt  among the Dwarves   of   Casarrondo  (Khazad-dum).   But  when   the  shadow of Sauron fell upon Eriador, he left Middle-earth, the last of the Lambengolmor,  and  sailed  to  Eressea,  where  maybe   he  still abides." - Quendi and Eldar





	1. The First Letter

Pengolodh to Elrond Peredhel, at Lindon, 8 Nárie S.A. 1730

Forgive me the inelegance of my hand, which dishonors our dear script and you, my dearest friend. For three days I have been quite unable to keep my desk in place. Our captain tells me that summer storms are quite common in this part of the world, and indeed I can hear the crew pattering about above my head as if the deck were steady as the shores of the undying realm. I myself am confined to my cabin, though not due to any ill will, unless it be that of Ulmo or his servants, wishing to exact revenge for that pride which caused me to forego the swanships and the straight road – I am, in a word, seasick. 

I have no fear for our safety. We are continually surrounded by gulls, which these Men believe to be a sure sign of Ossë’s favor. This was conveyed to me by the captain, who has a little Sindarin; the others speak in such a profusion of dialects I wonder the can understand each other. The Falathrim believed that gulls were particularly beloved by Ossë. (I’ve searched my papers for an old lay of theirs I put in writing at Sirion, something about rafts drawn by gulls over the glassy sea. If I left it behind in my haste, please have it sent). How strange and wonderful, that such a little thing should last so many mortal generations! – for surely their ancestors had it from the shore-elves. Stranger still that it should survive when the speech of these ancestors has not. Your command of the mortal tongues of the first age must be greater than mine, but even to my untrained ear there are evident alterations at every level of sound and structure. The Men are perfectly content to speak to me – or rather, at me – so long as it does not interfere with their duties. I am afraid they think me very strange. 

I do not expect court and (again, forgive me!) the King I left to understand why I chose to delay my journey, and visit among these people of the Apiolótse.* I am not troubled. Those few I loved will need no explanation, and reproach me only for having left. Keep me in your thoughts.  
Yours ever,

Quendingoldo Argadion 

*[A tree which blossoms profusely but briefly; in some varieties, only for a single night. – ed.]


	2. The Second Letter

Pengolodh to Elrond, at Lindon, 10 Nárie S.A. 1730

It is a festival day! The Númenoreans honor the Lady Uinen and her husband as if they were numbered among the Valar, and none more than the people of this city who live and die by her grace. The first thing one sees on sailing into the bay is a rocky island, Tol Uinen, into which her likeness is carved in monumental scale, a practice which they otherwise reserve exclusively for their kings. We fortunate ones found her hands full of a profusion of flowers of all kinds, with hyacinths and water-lilies predominating, offerings to the goddesss, for the day of our arrival was the second of the Uineniyë. 

This festival is celebrated here and in the western port of Eldalondë, where, I am told, the celebrants strew the waves with baskets of fresh and salt-water pearls. The easterners’ sacrifice is scarcely less precious: for here, all commerce is prohibited and no profit can be made; the city’s business ceases in honor of the goddess. Every street is hung with ribbons or banners of blue and green, which are her colors and those of the city of Rómenna. The city itself is enormous in size, larger even than Ost-in-Edhil, or my own Gondolin; less graceful, perhaps, but more grand. The older districts abut the great sea-wall built in the time of Tar Aldarion, and are built of the same material, a local stone with a pale greenish-gray color and a waxy surface, which lends itself beautifully to carving of every kind. The structures I at first took for enormous mansions are in fact divided up between three or four private homes, each housing a single extended family, which however share a single courtyard. In the lower city, there are canals. 

I have just come back from a performance – for in every district , two children, a boy and a girl of exceptional beauty, are chosen to play the parts of Ossë and Uinen in an elaborate dance, for which they spend several months rehearsing. “Ossë” is attended by varying numbers of male attendants in the guise of sea-birds, “Uinen” by an equal number of young women dressed as water-spirits or fantastical fish. These recitals are accompanied by the chanting of a lay in the native style. I mean to trouble my host for a translation – for one of the members of the local college has kindly offered me his hospitality for remainder of my stay, which I hope will be some three or four months in duration. I will send this letter with the first. Write to me in the care of Ibâl Agladin. 

Yours ever,

Quendingoldo Argadion


End file.
